Turnout High In Chicago

November 07, 2000|By Gary Washburn, Tribune Staff Writer.

Long lines stretched outside some Chicago area polling places Tuesday as voter turnout appeared strong.

"The voters were getting out early," said Thomas Leach, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. "We have gotten reports of waits in some precincts of half an hour and 45 minutes . . . . You usually don't see those kinds of lines before 4 p.m." on election days.

Early trends suggested that turnout for the day would range between 70 and 80 percent of registered voters in Chicago and suburban Cook County, officials said.

That indicated stronger interest than in the last presidential election in 1996 when only 63 percent of eligible voters in the city and 66 percent of those in Cook County showed up at the polls.

Though officials reported few problems, the day was not without some difficulties.

An advisory referendum over the future of a key site in the 33rd Ward that should have been on the ballot was absent in some polling places, causing a flurry of complaints from community activists who do not want to see commercial development on the 10.5-acre parcel, located at Addison Street and Kimball Avenue.

Board of Election workers delivered ballots containing the referendum about two hours after the polls opened.